KARACHI, Feb 18: The City Nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, has given final approval to the installation of a plant in the Cattle Colony to produce biogas and electricity from cow dung. The project would be completed at a cost of $0.2 million with New Zealand’s assistance.

The city government is expected to earn an income of millions of rupees from this project, said a statement on Saturday.

The city government will provide land at the Cattle Colony for the project, which would be completed in one-and-a-half to two years period by Empower Consultants Ltd.

Briefing the city nazim about the project in his office, the representatives of the firm said that about eight million kilograms of cow dung was produced at the Cattle Colony, which was not being utilized, and the same was causing cleanliness problems as well as a foul smell, creating pollution.

The nazim was told that Karachi was supplied milk and meat from the Cattle Colony and, therefore, the existence of hygienic conditions was imperative in this area, they pointed out.

With the plan’s installation, not only bio-gas, CNG and electricity will be generated but it will also lead to better cleanliness conditions in the area as the whole dung there will be utilized for the purpose, it was said.

Trees and saplings will also be planted for development of the locality.

In view of the great utility of the plant, Kamal approved the project on the spot and said the project should be executed at the earliest, adding that the city government would provide all facilities for the purpose.

The nazim said that besides generation of biogas and electricity from the plant the thing that was more significant was that it would lead to improvement of cleanliness conditions in the area and creation of a better environment.

“Ensuring cleanliness is our topmost priority and this project has all the aspects to meet our objective,” he pointed out and added that all bottlenecks in the way of the project would be removed.

The nazim directed the concerned authorities to take all necessary steps for getting the project off the ground.

The city government will provide all necessary facilities to the investors and added that all requirements from land to utilities would be met in this regard.—APP